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A security guard at a Whole Foods in Oakland, California was fired after he viciously beat a customer at the store after he attempted to pay using food stamps.

According to reports, the incident started after the victim and a cashier got into an argument inside the store when the victim tried to use food stamps. Zoe Marks, a witness to the assault, told the Oakland Tribune after her pictures went viral on Facebook that the victim didn’t become hostile or combative and that the assault by the security guard was completely random.

“He wasn't shouting at anyone. He wasn't violent or disruptive,” Marks, a UK citizen on vacation in the U.S., claimed in the interview. “There was no threat from him to any of the customers or employees. (We) felt safe until the security guard attacked him.”

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In her now-viral Facebook post, Marks wrote in detail about how the security guard attacked the man.

“In Oakland less than four hours and I just saw a young man violently assaulted by an armed security guard at Whole Foods - slammed repeatedly against concrete pillars, put in a chokehold, restrained, and suffocated until he was thrown face down on the pavement unconscious,” Marks wrote in the post. “The guard locked him out of the store despite the fact he was immobile. Not a single employee called the paramedics. He was trying to buy groceries with his EBT card and ended up in a stretcher.”

After Marks’ post went viral, people began tweeting at Whole Foods asking them to do something about the incident. Whole Foods initially responding letting customers know that they were “moving quickly to gather the facts” and that they take a “zero tolerance approach to violence.” In a follow-up tweet, the company confirmed that the security guard had been fired.”

“We are taking this very seriously,” the tweet read. “The security guard involved in incident has been permanently removed from all WFM stores.”

The victim is reportedly in stable condition at a nearby hospital, and police say they are currently investigating the incident.